Danaher (NYSE:DHR) Shares Gap Down to $239.39

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $239.39, but opened at $232.26. Danaher shares last traded at $235.01, with a volume of 728,663 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on DHR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.27.

Danaher Trading Down 0.9 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $175.69 billion, a PE ratio of 37.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $249.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $229.86.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company’s revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.87 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.90%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Danaher

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,928,442 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,460,966,000 after acquiring an additional 2,998,161 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 96,490.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,287,013 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,180,839,000 after buying an additional 23,262,904 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Danaher by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,757,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,876,694,000 after buying an additional 1,619,586 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Danaher by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 15,956,519 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,691,735,000 after buying an additional 1,334,781 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Danaher by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,183,501 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,030,327,000 after buying an additional 502,868 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Company Profile

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services that advance, accelerate, and integrate the development and manufacture of therapeutics; cell line and cell culture media development services; cell culture media, process liquids and buffers for manufacturing, chromatography resins, filtration technologies, aseptic fill finish; single-use hardware and consumables and services, such as the design and installation of full manufacturing suites; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes, and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.